I am making an mp3 player with React.js and HTML5 javascript API. I just learned React for two weeks, so I just got used to structure and setup (with components, etc.), However, I have several years of experience with JavaScript.

I had an mp3 player that worked when using React inside a browser. That is, I had an index.html file and I included the React scripts like this:

<script src="js/react.min.js"></script>
<script src="js/react-dom.min.js"></script>
<script src="js/browser.min.js"></script>

      

        
        
        
      

    

Now I would like to get used to building a React app using the command line and localhost, so I started rewriting the code for use in that environment. I started by creating a skeleton app like this:

create-react-app my-app
cd my-app/
npm start

      

        
        
        
      

    

Then I added in my own components, etc. The app maps correctly to localhost: 3000, however the audio files don't seem to play in this environment. I'm not sure if the issue is directly related to HTML5 audio, which just doesn't work on localhost or if it's something else. No errors are returned.

I have simplified my code and also hardcoded an audio tag in the mp3 file directory (see the AudioPlayer component) for now to see if I can get the audio element.

Can you see anything I can lose? Thanks to

Application component

    import React, { Component } from 'react';
    import Header from './Header';

    import AudioPlayer from './AudioPlayer';

    import Controls from './Controls';

    import './music-player.css';
    import './css/font-awesome.css';


    class App extends Component {

         //This class is the main component of the application.
         //it contains the header, the audio player and the side panel components.
         constructor(props) {
                super(props);
                this.state = {
                sidePanelIsOpen: false,
                currentSoundIndex: 0,
                isPlaying: false,
                playerDuration: 0,
                currentTime: "0:00",
                currentWidthOfTimerBar: 0,
                backButtonIsDisabled: false,
                forwardButtonIsDisabled: false,
                playButtonIsDisabled: false


            };
            this.toggleSidePanel = this.toggleSidePanel.bind(this);

        }   
        componentDidMount() {
            this.player = document.getElementById('audio_player');
            this.player.load();
            this.player.play(); //this is not doing anything
        }   
        toggleSidePanel(){
            var sidePanelIsOpen = this.state.sidePanelIsOpen;
            this.setState({sidePanelIsOpen: !sidePanelIsOpen})
        }


        render() {


            return(<div>
                <div id="main-container" className={this.state.sidePanelIsOpen === true ? 'swipe-left' : ''}>
                <div className="overlay">

                <AudioPlayer sounds={this.props.sounds} currentSoundIndex={this.state.currentSoundIndex} />
                </div>  
                </div>


                <div id="side-panel-area" className="scrollable">       
                    <div className="side-panel-container">
                    <div className="side-panel-header"><p>Menu</p></div>

                    </div>
                </div>
                </div>
            );  
        }

    }

    export default App;

      

        
        
        
      

    

AudioPlayer component

    import React, { Component } from 'react';
    import './music-player.css';

    const AudioPlayer = function(props) {
        var mp3Src = props.sounds[props.currentSoundIndex].mp3;
        console.log(mp3Src); //this is returning the correct mp3 value
            return (<audio id="audio_player">
            <source id="src_mp3" type="audio/mp3" src="sounds/0010_beat_egyptian.mp3" />
            <source id="src_ogg" type="audio/ogg" src=""/>
            <object id="audio_object" type="audio/x-mpeg" width="200px" height="45px" data={mp3Src}>
                <param id="param_src" name="src" value={mp3Src} />
                <param id="param_src" name="src" value={mp3Src} />
                <param name="autoplay" value="false" />
                <param name="autostart" value="false" />
            </object>
            </audio>    
            );

    }

    export default AudioPlayer;

      

        
        
        
      

    

index.js

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import App from './App';
import registerServiceWorker from './registerServiceWorker';
import './music-player.css';

var sounds = [{"title" : "Egyptian Beat", "artist" : "Sarah Monks", "length": 16, "mp3" : "sounds/0010_beat_egyptian.mp3"}, 
        {"title" : "Euphoric Beat", "artist" : "Sarah Monks", "length": 31, "mp3" : "sounds/0011_beat_euphoric.mp3"},
        {"title" : "Latin Beat", "artist" : "Sarah Monks", "length": 59, "mp3" : "sounds/0014_beat_latin.mp3"}, 
        {"title" : "Pop Beat", "artist" : "Sarah Monks", "length": 24, "mp3" : "sounds/0015_beat_pop.mp3"},
        {"title" : "Falling Cute", "artist" : "Sarah Monks", "length": 3, "mp3" : "sounds/0027_falling_cute.mp3"}, 
        {"title" : "Feather", "artist" : "Sarah Monks", "length": 6, "mp3" : "sounds/0028_feather.mp3"},
        {"title" : "Lose Cute", "artist" : "Sarah Monks", "length": 3, "mp3" : "sounds/0036_lose_cute.mp3"}, 
        {"title" : "Pium", "artist" : "Sarah Monks", "length": 3, "mp3" : "sounds/0039_pium.mp3"}];

ReactDOM.render(<App sounds={sounds} />, document.getElementById('root'));

registerServiceWorker();